


Metempsychosis Synchronicity

by KarkatWritesSomeShit



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: A lot of rehashing at the beginning as small changes build to big ones, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Rewrite, Cribbed Dialogue, Deep dive, F/M, Fite Squad, Gender Identity, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Telepathy, Very character focused, rotating narrator
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2020-08-10 00:17:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 18,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20126233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarkatWritesSomeShit/pseuds/KarkatWritesSomeShit
Summary: It's been six months since since the Kerberos mission went awry and those left behind try to pick up the pieces for some kind of future.No one expected the giant alien robot, though.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> SINCE SOMEONE DECIDED MAKING THIS FUCKING SERIES WITHOUT A CLEAR END GOAL IN MIND WAS A GOOD IDEA, I GUESS IT'S MY JOB TO FIX THE STEAMING PILE OF GARBAGE THE WRITERS STARTED DESPERATELY THROWING OUT HALF WAY THROUGH AND TURN IT INTO SOMETHING APPROACHING RESPECTABLE AND SATISFYING.
> 
> OR AT LEAST NOT QUEERBAITY AS FUCK. ADAM DESERVED BETTER.

Shiro has been missing for six months now. Not that Keith is counting because that’s bad luck, but looking at the calendar on his phone makes it really hard not to. The thing is old with the screen busted from being dropped (and thrown across a room once) but it still turns on most of the time when he tries it. The black case is a little muted for Keith’s taste but he’ll only get rid of it when someone pries it out of his cold, dead hands. 

On the back of it, he’d scratched the date Shiro came to his school looking for pilots and tried to change his life. 

Around him, the coffee shop people laugh and joke with one another. Keith sits alone because he likes it that way. The chaotic noise is why he usually steers clear of any place like this. He wouldn’t even be there if he hadn’t gotten that message.

_I know what they aren’t telling us about the Kerberos mission._

It’s a stretch, he knows that, but there’s nothing in Keith that will let him leave it be. All anyone has said to him since they got the news is to let go, they’re dead, he’s wasting his time. They don’t understand. _No one_ understands. For Keith to give up on Takashi Shirogane would take getting himself lobotomized. He doesn’t care if it means getting himself kicked out of the Garrison, scraping together a living doing odd jobs while living out in the desert. If it means holding on to the certainty that Shiro is still around somewhere just waiting for Keith to find him, it’s worth it.

Someone dropping a satchel down on the other side of his table jerks Keith out of his own head and then he isn’t at all sure what to think of the stranger. The kid barely looks old enough to be wandering around alone, at least as well as Keith’s ever been able to age anyone. Sandy blond hair that’s cropped short and messy, huge glasses that make it harder to read any expression. Something expectant.

“Beat it. I’m waiting for someone,” Keith says without much patience. His knife digs into the small of his back with promise. 

“TheTruthIsOutThere?” the kid asks and Keith narrows his eyes with uncomfortable surprise. The kid reaches up to adjust his glasses and then holds out his hand to shake. “Pidge Gunderson. You’d know me better as MercifulDestroyerOfN00bs.“

Which, yes, Keith knows that name but he’d definitely been expecting someone older. And possibly more intimidating. And who isn’t this kid. Maybe he should have, though. It’s kind of a childish thing to call yourself in retrospect.

“Keith Kogane,” he introduces as he takes that hand for as short a handshake as he can manage. He’s just touched more in that three seconds than in the last six months combined, except for when he punched Iverson. The man deserved it. Keith will fight anyone who says otherwise.

Pidge sits down with his cup of… something that looks frothy. Keith has coffee. Just… easy, normal coffee without all the weird shit thrown in it. Why everyone has to make things like coffee complicated he’ll never understand.

“So!” Pidge begins, dragging a laptop out of his bag and opening it. “This is what I’ve been looking at all morning.”

Pidge twists the laptop around and Keith feels every muscle in his body go steel tight. In front of him is a video feed showing Shiro. The volume is off but Keith’s good enough at reading lips to recognise the beginning words of an official report.

“How did you-”

“Pulled some strings, went places I wasn’t supposed to, yep. I’m the best,” Pidge says, lips curling at one side with obvious pride. “You were looking for proof of life? I’ve got proof.”

Keith reaches for the laptop and looks over the list of files Pidge has in the folder. The name structures are a match for Garrison files and go back all the way to before Shiro’s ship launched and forward to _after_ the crash was supposed to have happened. There are videos, audio logs, and peppered in them classified documents they’d _both_ go to jail for seeing but that has never been a thing Keith much worried about. There’s being lawful and then there’s being _right_.

“They said it was pilot error,” Pidge says. “Do you really believe your friend would pull something stupid on a mission like this?”

No. Keith’s eyes dart back up to Pidge’s face. Just what he might have at stake here, Keith doesn’t know and he doesn’t particularly care either. 

“What’s your next move?” he asks and Pidge grins.

“Depends on you. I showed you mine. Show me yours.”

He could be making a big mistake but it’s not like Keith has ever been big on forward thinking outside of a fight or a cockpit.

Pidge isn’t big enough to throw the balance of Keith’s hovercraft off. They fly through the dunes and rock formations without trouble. Unlike some of his dumber acquaintances, Pidge doesn’t complain about how hard he takes the turns or when he guns the engine to get an extra burst of speed so they can save twenty minutes by hopping over a crevice instead of going around the long way. It’s a nice change of pace.

Usually, he hates people. Pidge is so far breaking the curve. 

He lands the hovercraft down outside his house and Pidge is smart enough to keep his mouth shut about what it looks like. Keith’s not stupid; he knows it isn’t enough for most people, but it’s _his_ and he will fight tooth and nail to keep it no matter what anyone thinks. 

“Better than a rollercoaster,” Pidge declares as he hops off the hovercraft, stumbling a bit to catch his balance again.

“Come on.” Keith heads for the door and pushes through. He doesn’t bother to keep it locked. It’d be easy to break into and it’s not like Keith keeps much of value to anyone but himself. His tech is years out of date but there’s no sense in replacing what isn’t broken. 

As Pidge sets his bag down near the door, Keith crosses to the far side of the main room. Pulling the sheet covering his theory board off, he looks over the incomplete data he’s managed to cobble together so far and pauses when he hears a soft gasp behind him. Pidge’s eyes are wide as he takes in the diagrams and extensive notes Keith has made about the area.

“I don’t know what’s here,” Keith says almost defensively as Pidge steps nearer to his work and starts following red thread connecting star charts to the photographs he’d taken. “But I think it’s related to the Kerberos mission, somehow.”

There’s no real reason for him to think that. Nothing he can really justify anyway, but his gut hasn’t let him give up and leave it be.

“A blue lion?” Pidge asks, brows furrowing as he considers that. 

“I’ve transcribed one of the stories in that cave. Part of another. There’s more of them there, all slightly different but pointing to some kind of event.”

“And you think that was the mission?”

Keith shakes his head. “No. But it’s soon. It might be why the ship went dark in the first place.”

As Pidge looks back at him, studying and watchful, Keith realizes he knows nothing about this boy. Not where he came from, what his life is like, even if Pidge is his real name. Here he is just laying everything down at the feet of some kid that might have been trying to just pull a prank…

But it’d be hard to with the kind of files Pidge had.

“Did you tell anyone about this?” Pidge asks.

“Who would I tell?” Folding his arms across his chest, Keith looks back at the photos of the lion carvings. “The Garrison threw me out when I wouldn’t just accept Shiro being gone. Why would anyone else?”

Pidge chews at the inside of his cheek a moment before going to fetch his bag and pull out his laptop. 

“Okay,” he decides. “Let’s see if any of our data lines up.”

It’s the first time someone has really, actually believed him about anything since Shiro. Keith hadn’t thought he’d be so relieved and then all he can do is settle at the table with Pidge because even if it’s just a force of two, he’ll make it work. Shiro deserves that much. 

_Hold on, Shiro. We’ll be there soon._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I HAVE NO IDEA HOW QUICKLY UPDATES WILL COME OUT. YOU'RE JUST GOING TO HAVE TO PULL SOME SEMBLANCE OF PATIENCE OUT OF YOUR CHUTE AND DEAL WITH IT.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PIDGE GETS SHIT DONE

Keith has proven himself a good ally over the last few months. He’s quick enough on the uptake that Pidge doesn’t have to slow down, even if he doesn’t have the technical background to follow every nuance. Just a general idea is fine for most of what they’re up to. When Pidge tells him something, Keith accepts it without distrusting her lack of age or experience. It’s nice. About the only other person doing the same is her teammate Hunk and she thinks that has more to do with the fact that he _does_ have the background to keep up with her. Plus, he’s not much older even if he’s entirely too huge.

Her other teammate is an ass. She’s pretty glad he doesn’t know she’s a girl, considering the way he treats them. Not that Pidge is the kind of girl Lance would be interested in but still. One less hurdle for her to get through.

Katie realizes abruptly that she’d started thinking of herself as Pidge even in her own head. She doesn’t know what to feel about that. It’s been a few months since she entered the Garrison as Pidge but… More and more, this feels more right than anything else she’s been. People take her seriously like this. A genius kid gutsy enough to defend his people rather than a smart mouthed little girl that made men feel insecure due to her intelligence. About the only guys she knows who didn’t are missing in action and presumed dead.

She wonders what Keith would think. He doesn’t seem the type to care much. Honestly, he’d probably be more pissed off at being lied to than about the actual lie, she’s pretty sure. The way he complains about how the Garrison covered everything up about the Kerberos mission is telling enough of that. Whether or not Keith would have just accepted the truth of “we don’t know” is debatable though. 

Thinking about unknowns isn’t helpful right now. Katie squints down at the circuit board and gently adjusts several connections for her latest invention. The stuff she’s been able to lay hands on isn’t strong enough to filter through all the space noise to get a good read on what she and Keith picked up the other night so it’s a good thing she’s been making franken devices since she was old enough to hold a soldering iron (and not where her mother could see it and scold her father about letting Katie so near the dangerous tools.) 

She’s been spending her off days out here with Keith, keeping her teammates at a far enough distance that they haven’t pursued her, at least not yet. Even if Keith doesn’t have air conditioning, it’s still easier to work without the loud goings on of the base around her. Sometimes he sits around and has her tell him what she’s doing but most of the time he’s either exploring the weird cave he found or brooding. Keith is _very_ good at brooding.

“I still don’t get it,” Keith mutters to himself as he paces the length of his theory board. “Why gather all the stories here in the first place if none of them agree on what happened or what it means?”

“Meeting of the minds?” Katie suggests as she secures the current port in place. “Doing the same thing _we_ are and trying to make sense of multiple accounts?”

He gives his notes a more thoughtful look. “I think we’re closer to an answer.”

Pidge hopes so. She glances his way, watching worry filter into Keith’s serious features, and then turns her attention back to her work. Easier to forget just how scared she is that the Garrison is right if she’s working. Her dad and Matt are alive, she refuses to accept any other option. Keith’s friend, too.

That night, they scale up the rocky cliff so Pidge can get her receiver set up. Keith follows her instructions with a laser focus that mirrors her own. Since they met, she’s heard stories about him in the Garrison and how much of a hard time the brass had making him do what they wanted, but Pidge has found him to be pretty easy to lead as long as he understands the _point_ of something he’s asked to do and is motivated correctly. Maybe in a taciturn way but still. Seems to her like the brass just sucked at it.

She has no intention of telling Keith about that because Pidge is gutsy, not _stupid_.

As Keith looks up at the endless starfield, Pidge fiddles with the settings to get it just right and smooth out the signal. Radio bursts aren’t unheard of but nothing over split seconds before now. These are clear, long lasting, continuous signals and if Pidge can figure this out-

She jumps as the static in her headphones suddenly clears just enough for her to make out sounds that seem to be _voices_ and _words_. They aren’t words she knows, vowels all wrong and strange mixtures of consonants as well as a couple sounds she’s not sure she could make, but it’s recognizably _language_. Nothing like anything she’d ever heard.

“Keith,” she breathes. “Keith, aliens are _real_.”

His head snaps around. “What?”

Pidge holds out the headphones wordlessly and he jams them over his head. For a few seconds, he just listens in silence, probably hearing the same things she did. His eyes narrow, brows furrowing up tight between them.

“What the hell is _voltron_?” 

She’d heard them repeat it over and over amid the babble. It’s a word that doesn’t sound like it matches the others, like it’s as foreign to them as it is to her. The sounds that make it up are more like native Japanese than the rest. “No idea but it must be important considering how often they say it.”

“...We’ll keep watch on it. See if they mention anything we can understand,” he decides and Pidge is glad he’s got some kind of plan because she sure doesn’t. She takes back the headphones and they spend most of the night sitting with her receiver and listening to alien babble.

Pidge wakes up to Keith shaking her shoulder. It’s not quite dawn but she needs to be back at the Garrison before her teammates realize she’s gone. It’s been hard to keep them out of her business. Hunk’s friendly to a fault and Lance just doesn’t understand personal boundaries. She’s probably being a little harsh on him, all told. From what she’s gathered, he’s from a huge family and possibly hasn’t had much in the way of personal space to set up boundaries for in the first place. It’s still _annoying, _though. 

As Pidge sneaks back onto base, she can’t help wondering for the millionth time why the Garrison is trying so hard to hide the truth. It’s not like hiding it will make anything go away! But she’s not quite in position to expose them just yet. Soon.

The next time Pidge shows up at Keith’s house, he stops her from going inside with a simple question, “Have they started you on hand-to-hand techniques?”

Pidge slowly blinks at him. “Nooo…?”

“Thought so. Come on.” Keith jerks his head off towards a stretch of clearer land at the side of the house and starts for it. It takes Pidge a few seconds to trot after him, confused as she is. When he drops himself into some kind of stance, confusion turns to alarm.

“What-”

“If we’re getting invaded by aliens, you need to be able to defend yourself.”

What. Pidge stares at him hard and Keith doesn’t give an inch. 

“We can do this my way or I can just attack you until you learn how to dodge,” he offers with an unhappy twist of his mouth.

“How are those not _both_ your way?!”

“One causes fewer bruises.”

Keith is _insane_. But it’s easier to just do what he says. Pidge lets Keith guide her through a few easy move sets, rolls her eyes at his criticism of her body strength, and then loses badly at a sparring session he describes as “not entirely hopeless.” She resolves to find some scorpions for his shoes.

What’s worse is Keith keeps up the impromptu training sessions. For a couple hours every time she visits, he’s either teaching her a new move or throwing her into the dirt. She’s not sure why she even goes to see him anymore. Once he’s done beating her up constructively, it’s back to talking about their findings and listening to alien babble. She guesses it’s worth it.

It’s weeks later when something finally happens. That day proceeds fairly normally. They attend training classes, Lance crashes the simulator spectacularly, Hunk gets utterly sick, and Pidge is left trying not to convince them to _go home already_. Sometimes she thinks she’s the only sane person around the place. It’s only a slight comfort that while dressing them down, Iverson only has a sparing few words for her specifically. He stalks off to the observation area and Pidge counts the seconds down in her head before - 

“Nice one,” James mutters not so under his breath, the corner of his mouth crinkling up like the asshole he is. “Maybe next time you’ll take out the whole planet with you.”

“Like you’ll do better,” Lance shoots back. The sad thing is, James _will_. He’s an incredible pilot, even if his people skills could use a _lot_ of work.

“Watch and maybe you’ll learn how to follow procedure.” James heads for the simulator with a certain amount of smug swagger. If Pidge weren’t trying to stay under the brass’s radar, she might punch his stupid, perfectly straight white teeth out. Not for Lance’s sake, he’s a big enough boy to handle himself, but she _really_ hates that kind of attitude.

Plus, she has to hear about James’ expert run all the way back to the dorms and that’s enough to spark violence in anyone. With Hunk concentrating on cooling Lance down, Pidge is free to go change down to civvies and escape to do more observation up on the roof. 

Last night, the alien chatter had been more excited than she’s heard it and today is even worse. Pidge squints at her readouts as she listens, mentally counting every time she hears the world _voltron_. Maybe it’s silly but she can’t help thinking they seem to be working up to something. If they’re getting close, she can’t tell, but there’s some sense in her that thinks it’s about to reach breaking point. Something’s going to happen, something’s going to change-

Something pulls at her headphones and Pidge whips around with her fist before she can think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PIDGE IS PROBABLY UNFAIR TO LANCE IN THIS CHAPTER BUT IN HER DEFENSE, HE HAS A LOT OF CHARACTER GROWTH TO GET TO.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HUNK HAS A BAD TIME

Lance gets hit so hard that he ends up knocked onto his side in a show of strength Hunk had not expected in the least. Pidge’s form looks as good as the older cadets he watches sometimes with growing anxiety at the knowledge that he’ll have to go through that soon. His follow through is solid and only breaks when he realizes who he just punched.

“Lance?!”

“Jeez, Pidge! What the hell?!” Lance snaps, rolling up to sit with his cheek in is hand. If he’s not black and blue by tomorrow, Hunk will be _very_ surprised. He’s already surprised Lance’s lip isn’t busted open.

“Don’t sneak up on people!” Pidge shoots back and wow, this situation is going to devolve into arguing _quick_.

“Uh, guys? How about we just agree that everyone’s in the wrong and go on with our lives?” he tries but neither of them pay much attention to him. Hunk sighs as they keep snarling at each other and then looks at the gismo Pidge had been fiddling with. It’s a little rough and different from anything he’s seen. Sinking down to one knee next to it, he studies the configuration, figures out pretty quick that it must have some pretty powerful sensory capability even if the dish is tiny. Just what is Pidge trying to catch-

“_Hunk_.” He blinks, his hand an inch away from the dish when Pidge speaks. “Don’t.”

“I wasn’t!” He sits back on his heels. Pidge’s narrowed eyes are still suspicious. “What are you even watching for, anyway?”

“Nunya.”

“What?”

Before Pidge can elaborate, Lance leans into Hunk’s side and chimes in delightedly, “_Nunya business_.”

The sour look on Pidge’s face at the missed opportunity is kind of hilarious but Hunk carefully doesn’t laugh at him. Then again, he thinks he’s rightfully disgusted at the old, stupid joke.

“Seriously though,” Lance continues as he squints at Pidge’s receiver, “what’s it for? You come up here to rock out?”

“No. Um, just looking at the stars.” 

Even Lance isn’t gullible enough to fall for that and Hunk certainly isn’t. This kind of setup isn’t for _looking_ at anything. He considers calling him on the lie but Lance is already poking forward on his own.

“Where’d you get all this stuff? It doesn’t look like Garrison tech.”

Pidge gathers himself up, chest puffing out with pride as he declares, “I built it.”

And Hunk doesn’t doubt it. Their Comm Spec could have easily joined the engineering core like he did, even as heavy into the software side as he is opposed to Hunk’s hardware focus. The amount of times he’d been stuck on one problem or another and had Pidge just randomly pipe up the answer is higher than Hunk should probably like, but he’s just been so relieved to have someone around who doesn’t get lost in the technical jargon he uses without even thinking about it. Plus, small as Pidge is, he’d be able to get way deeper into the inner workings than most. Definitely an asset. Hunk wonders if the others realize just how versatile he is.

If Pidge built this stuff… Oh man, Hunk wants _in_ on that. His fingers twitch, itching to get in and take a look at the wiring, the connector setup, see how much horsepower’s poured into that small package-

A much smaller hand smacks his away before Hunk realizes he even reached out to touch again. “Stop it.”

“Sorry,” Hunk mutters even though he kind of isn’t. 

“With this thing,” Pidge goes on, “I can scan all the way to the edge of the universe.”

Lance makes a little hum of thought. “That right? All the way to Kerberos?”

It’s a connection Hunk hadn’t thought to make but considering the way Pidge winces and looks away, Lance’s hit the nail on the head. Makes sense, though.

“You go ballistic every time the instructors bring it up,” Lance points out, leaning into Pidge’s space even as Pidge leans back out of it. In any other situation, Hunk would think they were some coordinated acting troupe. It’s a show he’d probably watch.

“It _is _kind of weird,” he agrees because the way Pidge goes off, it’s like there’s some kind of personal stake there. Or maybe Pidge is just the type of person who thinks the government is trying to cover everything ever up. Not like Pidge has gotten friendly enough to let Hunk get to know him well enough to think otherwise!!

“It’s- STOP TOUCHING MY EQUIPMENT!”

Hunk hadn’t even realized he’d reached out again. It’s just interesting!! He hasn’t gotten to see nearly enough of Pidge’s work and he’s itching to compare their styles. 

"Look, Pidge. If we're going to bond as a team, we can't have any secrets,” Lance says with a reasonableness Hunk used to get surprised over. Most people think there’s nothing going on in Lance’s head but Hunk knows differently. Lance watches people and yeah, he styles himself like a playboy for some reason Hunk’s never figured out but his emotional intuition is leaps and bounds ahead of Hunk’s own a lot of the time. Unless there’s a pretty girl involved. Or that one pilot who washed out months ago Lance still talks about sometimes. 

Pidge is skeptical but after a few seconds of Lance’s undivided attention, he finally caves. "Fine.”

It still takes him another few seconds to suck it up and start talking though.

“The world as you know it is about to change,” Pidge says with a gravity Hunk isn’t expecting. “The Kerberos Mission wasn't lost because of some malfunction or crew mistake.”

Lance leans back on his arms, being as patient as he can even if one foot has started up a steady tap. Hunk’s gaze keeps drifting back to the receiver but he keeps his hands stuck in his lap.

“I've been scanning the system and picking up alien radio chatter,” Pidge lets out all at once like he’s pulling off a bandage- Wait.

_Wait_. "Whoa, what? Aliens?!"

Lance’s brows are up to his hairline. "Okay, so you're insane. Got it."

"I'm serious!” Pidge insists with a glare. “They keep repeating one word: voltron. I don’t know what it is and it doesn’t sound like any of their _other_ words so I think it’s foreign to them- And tonight, they’re going crazier than I have ever heard it."

This is officially _way_ over Hunk’s head and he does _not _appreciate it. Aliens, conspiracies, this is so not his thing!

"How crazy?" Lance asks after a second of thought, head tilting around to peek at PIdge’s monitoring program as the audio feed spikes all over the place. Pidge wordlessly hands over his headphones and almost immediately, he’s jerking Hunk over so they can listen together. It takes a bit for Hunk to realize what exactly he’s hearing. It sounds almost like static but then he starts putting together scratchy sounds, tongue clicks, more guttural undertones and… It’s alien radio chatter, plain as advertised.

“See?” Pidge doesn’t look _happy_ to share this with them but there’s a stubborn core to his convictions. Hearing _voltron_ in the middle of the rest, Hunk kind of gets what Pidge meant when he said it seemed different. The sounds are so completely unlike any of the other words he can make out, like a different language. 

“Why aren’t they _telling_ anyone?!” Lance wonders aloud, sounding almost offended.

“And cause mass chaos?” Pidge rolls his eyes. “Yeah, that sounds like a smart plan-”

They all jump when the Garrison alarm starts going off. Iverson’s voice crackles over the loudspeaker: "Attention, students. This is not a drill. We are on lockdown. Security situation Zulu Niner. Repeat: All students are to remain in barracks until further notice."

Situation Z9? Hunk can’t remember what that one means - he’s _terrible_ at codes - but the way Pidge’s mouth presses into a tight white line makes him think it’s definitely not something he wants to mess with.

“Look!” Lance jumps to his feet, pointing out something in the sky. It’s burning? A meteor?

"What's going on? Is that a meteor?!” Hunk pales because that doesn’t quite look right. “... A very, very big... meteor?"

Pidge gets up, binoculars in hand as he peers up at the thing. “It’s a ship!”

Oh he does not like that.

“One of ours?” he asks, hoping against the worst.

Lance grabs the binoculars away from Pidge to get a look at the fiery ball in the sky for himself. "Holy crow! I can't believe what I'm seeing. Definitely not one of ours!"

Ah _man_.

"No. It's one of theirs.” Pidge doesn’t even sound annoyed that Lance took his binoculars, bouncing from one foot to the other at the confirmation. It isn’t excitement Hunk can share in.

"So wait, there really are aliens out there?!" he asks with growing horror as they watch the thing streak across the sky and then crash deeper in the desert. Almost immediately, Hunk spots a troop of Garrison vehicles leaving the base to intercept. Ooooh, he does not have a good feeling about this.

The feeling gets worse when Pidge declares, "We've gotta see that ship!"

“Hunk, come on!" Lance says, already on the move with Pidge because they’re apparently _insane_.

"Oh, this is the worst team-building exercise ever,” Hunk moans to himself even as he goes after them because he, too, is apparently out of his gourd. His mom is going to _murder him_ when she hears about this stunt, he just knows it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I THINK IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT HUNK IS THE BEST CHARACTER HANDS DOWN, THERE IS NO DISCUSSION NEEDED. I DON'T MAKE THE RULES. 
> 
> BUT MOSTLY THIS CHAPTER IS AN EXCUSE TO USE THIS SCENE WITHOUT MAKING HUNK'S INTEREST IN PIDGE'S STUFF SEEM DUMB. BECAUSE MORE HUNK IS ALWAYS A GOOD THING AND OBVIOUSLY!SMART HUNK IS EVEN BETTER.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THE THREE STOOGES DO WHAT THREE STOOGES DO.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TOTAL REHASHING BUT WITH MORE FEELING AND A LITTLE SMOOTHING OUT, BUT MOSTLY REHASHING.

It’s not that Lance specifically goes out of his way to find trouble. Trouble is just _interesting_ and there’s no way this whole thing isn’t trouble with a capital T. 

“Stop hogging the binoculars,” Pidge complains at Lance’s side but he’s more concerned with watching the Garrison soldiers down below the handy cliff they’d scoped out. Below, a contingent leads the weird alien craft into the bunker they usually use for raid drills, nice and out of the way from any of the surrounding cities. Not that the Garrison is all that _close_ to any of them - not like the launch site in Florida - but it’s still good practice not to get civilians involved. Especially when it comes to something like _freaking aliens on Earth_. 

He’d be even more excited if he knew this was a peaceful kind of thing but he’s still pretty excited in general. Something about it feels like a build to even more interesting things and Lance is so going to be on the front line!

“Man, look at that thing!” he marvels, eyeing the clean lines of the craft and strange design. “How does it even _fly_?”

Not like it had wings of any kind. Was it even really a ship? A pod of some kind, maybe? And then his eyes catch on one of the officers holding the doors open for the ship. 

“And who the heck is _she?_” From the distance, there’s a lot he can’t make out but man, the uniform looks _great_ on that body-

“Lance!” Pidge snarls, knocking his shoulder before grabbing for the binoculars. Lance has way too many siblings to just let him win; he immediately holds them too high for Pidge to reach and feels a great swell of mirth at the angry red flush in his cheeks. Yeah, maybe Pidge isn’t that much younger than him but he’s as tiny as Lance’s little sisters. He just can’t help picking on him a little.

Just as Pidge seems ready to pounce on him - and Lance isn’t really interested in fighting him with his face still kind of aching - Lance hands them over so he can peer down at the commotion. 

“Man, we'll never get past all those guards to get a look," he mutters as he mentally calculates the trouble. He’s not terrible in a fight but it’s definitely not his best skill and besides, he doesn’t really want to get kicked out of the Garrison over this, even if it’s aliens. And if Hunk or Pidge get hurt in the mixup, well, that would really suck.

"Aw, man. Yeah, we- yeah, I guess there's nothing to do but head back to the barracks, right?" Hunk tries with only a hint of desperation and maybe he’s right, even if it’s more about how uncomfortable Hunk is in any kind of altercation - and why a guy so averse to conflict joined the _military _is beyond him.

The three of them watch a while, studying the guards as they set up a secure guard formation at the doors with others going to handle the other entrances. Lance frowns with concentration. There’s got to be a way past those guys...

“If we could just get a look _inside-_”

Pidge stiffens at his side and then tugs out a laptop from his backpack. As his fingers fly over the keys, Lance tries to figure out just what he’s up to but computers really aren’t his thing. Shooting and flying, now _those_ are his thing. It takes Pidge a few minutes to do… whatever it is he’s doing, kind of boring, so Lance goes back to scoping out the primo babe at the front doors.

Still, Lance’s interest flips back over when he hears the “a-ha!” moment in Pidge’s voice.

“They set up a camera in there and I grabbed its feed,” he says with excitement. “Look!"

Lance crowds in to get a better look at the video feed filling up Pidge’s screen and even Hunk’s peering over their shoulders. In front of them is some kind of medical bay but Lance’s attention goes right to the body strapped down to a table in the middle of the room because he _knows_ that guy. Doesn’t he? The white shock of hair would be hard to forget but it’s the face that catches Lance off guard because-

"That's Takashi Shirogane,” he realizes in one very uncomfortable moment. “The pilot of the Kerberos Mission. That guy's a _legend_."

"Guess he's not dead in space after all,” Hunk says but doesn’t sound all that comforted to see the guy this way.

The tinny voice of Lance’s hero pipes up from the feed, "_Hey! What are you doing?_"

"_Calm down, Shiro_,” Iverson mutters as he fiddles with some kind of gizmo Lance doesn’t care about. “_We just need to keep you quarantined until we run some tests on you._"

"_You have to listen to me! They destroyed worlds! Aliens are coming!_"

“Whoa.” Lance feels his belly going uncomfortably tight with the confirmation of freaking _aliens_. 

Beside him, Pidge ask in a tiny voice, "Where's the rest of the crew?"

That’s a question right there. Lance doesn’t want to speculate on it, especially not around someone as weirdly obsessed over the mission as Pidge. He knows what’s _probably_ happened. Space travel is dangerous, especially a landmark mission like Kerberos. Being hopeful about a place that seems pretty much _made_ to kill you seems kind of silly in his mind. Not that Lance doesn’t think there’s a chance that the crew is alive! He’s just… trying to be more realistic than that. 

Sometimes.

"_Do you know how long you've been gone?_" Iverson’s asking, catching Lance’s attention again.

"_I don't know. Months? Years?_” Sasy a lot about where a guy was if he doesn’t know something like that. “_Look, there's no time. Aliens are coming here for a weapon. They're probably on their way. They'll destroy us! We have to find voltron!_"

Hunk sucks in a hard breath and Lance is right there with him, jerking his gaze onto Pidge to watch the way his eyes go hard and vindicated. _Voltron_, Shiro said. Does he know what it is? Lance doesn’t like the way his stomach drops as he considers the possibilities.

_"Sir, take a look at this. It appears his arm has been replaced with a cyborg prosthetic,"_ one of the technicians says and Iverson steps over to give it a look. The feed isn’t close enough to get a good look at the thing, not nearly enough.

"_Put him under until we know what that thing can do,_" Iverson decides because he can’t stop being _wrong_.

Even Shiro agrees he’s wrong. "_Don't- don't put me under! No! No, there's no time! Let me go!"_

"What are they doing? The guy's a legend. They're not even gonna listen to him?" Lance is offended on Shiro’s behalf. It doesn’t take them long to subdue Shiro and knock him out. Lance swallows the growing lump in his throat and they watch Iverson talk to the techs a while before he heads out somewhere else.

"They didn't ask about the rest of the crew,” Pidge says and there’s definitely something wrong with his voice. When this is all over, Lance is sitting on him until he explains just why the Kerberos mission means so much to him. "We have to get him out."

"Ah, I hate to be the voice of reason here, always, but weren't we just watching on TV because there was no way to get past the guards?" Hunk reminds them and yeah, fair point but also no.

"That was before we were properly motivated. We've just got to think. Could we tunnel in?" Lance says and Pidge’s head jerks up with surprise that Lance is going along with it. Why is beyond him. It’s not like Lance has always been the picture of a perfectly obedient soldier even when he tries to be. Which isn’t often. 

"Maybe we could get some hazmat suits and sneak in like med techs,” Pidge suggests and that might work for Lance or Hunk but Pidge is _puny._ The only way someone’d consider him an adult would be putting him on stilts. Which… is an idea! Not a great one but it’s something to start from!

"Or we dress up like cooks, sneak into the commissary... little late-night snack,” Hunk says with more than a little hint of desperation. Lance feels for him, he really does, but just because Hunk’s not up for adventure much doesn’t mean Lance is about to just turn his back on a hero pilot like _Takashi Shirogane._

“... No,” he says at last. “What we need is a distraction."

Before he can think further, a line of explosives go off on the other side of the base. The rumble of it rolls through the earth under them and even from this distance, Lance still has to shield himself from the heat blast that shoots up the cliff face. As soon as he can, he looks up under his raised arm to see thick clouds building up as Garrison personnel begin pouring out to investigate. 

"Is that the aliens?!” Hunk asks, climbing back up to his feet as horror drips from his voice. “Are- Tha- The- Is that the aliens?! Are they here?! They got here so quick!"

"No. Those explosions _were_ a distraction,” Pidge says. He gets up to stare over the cliff face but not at the smoke. “For him!"

Far below them, Lance spots someone piloting a hovercraft down on the abandoned side.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> KEITH IS A BAMF.

When Keith was young, aliens were a fantastical daydream and he’d spent many hours playing at the notion of defending Earth. His father told him over and over that if there was intelligent life out in the cosmos, there were probably _nice_ aliens too, but Keith had been a lot more focused on the whole hero thing.

He doesn’t feel like what he’s doing right now is heroic but it _is_ necessary. If the thing the Garrison found came from the sky, there’s a good chance it might have some kind of clue on where Shiro is.

Setting the bombs is easy. He expects fewer Garrison officers to get distracted by them but he’ll take that break. Settling his hovercraft down, Keith jumps out of it as he shuts it off and sprints towards the double doors. A single guard inside goes down quick. It’s not that Garrison soldiers are badly trained, Keith’s just had nothing better to do than fight since his dad died. 

He quickly stops thinking about that the way he always does because old hurts are meaningless if there’s nothing he can do about them.

This place is small enough that he only has to go down a few wrong halls and take down a few more people before he finds the weird alien craft. Smaller than he expected, maybe only big enough for a single person- A person. His heart catches in his chest with a hope that will hurt when it’s for naught because the craft is empty but _maybe it hadn’t been_. 

Twisting on his heel, he dives back into the hall at a dead run, finds an infirmary a minute later. He spies four people through the glass as he silently approaches the double doors.

“_These readings are off the chart,_” he hears and then a more familiar voice ask for more details. Keith’s always been better at remembering voices than faces. He and Iverson have no lost love between them but Keith’s pretty sure the guy is just trying to do his job. Doesn’t mean he has any intention of sparing him anything if Iverson tries to get in his way. 

When he bursts through the doors, Keith takes out one technician with them and the next closest goes down nearly as fast as Keith uses his momentum to plow him into the wall across the room. 

“Hey!” Iverson yells out but Keith ignores him as he catches the third technician in his arms to use as a shield because he knows Iverson- Yes. There’s his weapon. Keith glares over the technician’s shoulder, knife pressed a little too close to the woman’s throat. Iverson curses under his breath but his aim doesn’t waver. “Son, you are in a _world_ of trouble.”

“Put it on the table and get on your knees,” Keith orders and watches as Iverson takes in the situation. Maybe Keith doesn’t have any intention of killing anyone today but Iverson doesn’t know that. Mutiny in his eyes, Iverson sets down his pistol and sinks to his knees as Keith leads the technician around the table, just far enough that he can make sure Iverson’s not doing anything funny. The old desert fox probably has tricks up his sleeve that Keith’s never heard of; he doesn’t trust him an inch.

When Iverson folds his hands on the back of his head, Keith releases the technician and shoves her forward to give him the room he needs for a sharp kick to the back of her head. She goes down like a stone. 

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” Iverson snarls and Keith just tugs a length of cord from his pockets to restrain Iverson’s hands behind his back. He does the technicians as well because none of them should be out for more than a few minutes if he held his strikes the way he thinks he did. 

With all of them out of his way, Keith’s eyes flicker over to the bed in the middle of the room. He hadn’t had time to get a good look at their alien prisoner-

“Shiro,” he whispers, eyes going wide as he tugs down his bandana. He hears Iverson suck in a harsh breath and curse his name but there’s nothing that could tear Keith’s attention from what he’s seeing.

Shiro’s body lays strapped onto a table like some kind of experiment. Keith touches his bare throat to make sure the stillness isn’t- No, strong heartbeat. The white shock of hair is new but the face, all the features fit together just as Keith remembers and form a face he knows better than his own, even with the scar bisecting it. Shiro looks tired and strained, his face thinner but body bulked up considerably. Whatever he’d been up to has driven him further into his peak than Keith realized he could go. He reaches out to touch Shiro’s arm and pauses with his fingers barely an inch from it because that is a _weird_ gauntlet- That’s not a gauntlet.

Someone had _cut off Shiro’s arm_. Keith draws in a shaky breath as his eyes trail over the slick metal finish of it, tracing visible joints and joins. That he’d been given a prosthetic is good Keith guesses, but that he’d _needed _one… For a moment, Keith sees pure red and has to grab the edge of the table to catch himself again. Not the time. He could get angry later when he had an actual _target_.

But oh man, Keith was going to _tear them the fuck apart_.

“You’re going to get worse than an expulsion this time, Kogane!” Iverson vows and the world abruptly jerks back into focus. Keith doesn’t even spare the man a glance as he starts getting Shiro free. As soon as the straps are loosed, Keith tugs one too muscular arm over his shoulders to ease Shiro onto his back. 

“Don’t think you’re just going to walk out that door,” Iverson continues and Keith doesn’t have time for this. He feels no remorse for knocking Iverson out cleanly even if he really wants to beat the man’s face in.

He hears running steps and jerks up, fully ready to fight off whoever’s coming his way. If anyone on the planet or otherwise thinks Keith won’t fight to the last man to save Takashi Shirogane, they obviously don’t know anything about him.

But what stumbles around the corner isn’t more Garrison soldiers. It’s a tall idiot, a big guy who seems like he wants to be anywhere but here, and- 

“Pidge?” he asks with surprise but maybe he shouldn’t be. Pidge has been with him every step of the way for the last six months.

“Keith?!” Pidge sounds just as shocked as he is but they don’t have time to wonder why they’re both here when the idiot pushes his way forward. 

"Nope. Not you—No, no, no, no, no, no, no you don't. _I'm_ saving Shiro."

What. When the guy starts lifting Shiro’s other arm across his shoulders, Keith figures this will at least make it easier until he can dump the would be rescuers- unless these are Pidge’s friends. Are they? Keith wants to think he has better taste.

"Who are you?" he asks belatedly and the guy has the audacity to look _insulted_.

"Who am I? Uh, the name's _Lance_." Like that helps. Keith’s dead stare must have come across because the guy continues, "... We were in the same class at the Garrison?"

Keith doesn’t have solid memory of just about anyone at the Garrison other than Shiro and that asshole James. And Iverson. "Really? Are you an engineer?"

"No, I'm a _pilot_. We were, like, rivals. You know, Lance and Keith, neck-and-neck."

What- _oh_. Abruptly, Keith knows exactly who Lance is and the world’s poorer for it. He doesn’t know what kind of crazy fantasy world Lance must live in to think they were ever close enough to be rivals, but whatever. Lance is being a decent escape assist for now.

“I remember you,” he mutters. “You're a cargo pilot."

"Well, _not anymore_,” Lance shoots back. “I'm _fighter_ class now, thanks to you washing out."

Like being the worst of the fighter class is something to be proud of. "Well, _congratulations_."

“Can we just _go?_” Pidge says with a sideways glance towards Iverson like he thinks the man might come to right that second. As if Keith couldn’t put someone down for as long as he needed. Scowling, he lets Lance help and together they carry Shiro outside.

He hadn’t expected them to and doesn’t know how to tell them not to, so when everyone climbs into his hovercraft Keith just grits his teeth and deposits Shiro inside as well. Calculating how much slower the extra mass is going to make him makes him even less sure about all this.

"Is this thing going to be big enough for all of us?" Pidge is usually smarter than this.

"_No_,” Keith mutters with irritation but he still gets them airborne somehow. They slow him down but Keith can still fly circles around the best Garrison pilot in his sleep. He can’t quite shake the last one, even using the big guy’s bulk to tighten his turns and trick them into crashing. Thinking about what’s coming ahead, Keith gets an idea. 

"Guys? Is th-th-th-tha-tha—Is that a cliff up ahead?" the big guy whimpers out while Keith runs the odds in his head. It’s a gamble with this much weight but he’s pretty sure he can pull it off.

"Ooooh no, no, no! No, no, no, no—!" Lance whines and Keith smirks as he guns the engine.

"_Yep._"

The screams as he vaults them right off the cliff aren’t quite as annoying with this much adrenaline running through his system. Keith keeps his eyes on his target, keeping track of the ground rushing towards them. Not yet… No… _now!_

Pulling out of the dive, Keith rights the hovercraft perfectly and rides that high all the way back to his house. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I NEVER UNDERSTOOD WHY IVERSON DIDN'T PUT UP MORE RESISTANCE WHEN HE'S AN EXPERIENCED ENOUGH SOLDIER TO BE THEIR GODDAMN INSTRUCTOR. THIS ISN'T MUCH BETTER BUT AT LEAST A TOKEN EFFORT WAS MADE.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SHIRO WAKES UP.

If feels like he’s been packed away in wet cotton, not-quite-real and altogether unpleasant. He’s not quite sure where he is or how he got there, what he’s supposed to be doing. Every thought slips through his fingers and disappears into nothing. 

When he finally manages to open his eyes, he still isn’t quite thinking right again. He blinks up at a ceiling that’s familiar but doesn’t know why. The air isn’t as oppressively hot as Shiro thinks it should be but just as dry. Late fall? Winter, maybe. There are voices nearby, one he knows and can’t identify just yet but the others entirely new. He doesn’t feel like he’s in any danger, isn’t sure why he _would_ be-

_Galra_. 

Shiro jerks up with a gasp, his mind clearing in an instant. “Don’t put me-”

“Shiro!” 

He looks up, still wild, but he knows that face. He _knows_ this person and the name comes out like a shaky breath, “_Keith_.”

“I’m here.” Keith shoots a sharp look at the others and the short blond kid starts shoving the others out the door of Keith’s small desert shack. Shiro had offered more than a few times to let Keith live with him since he ran from the dorms so often to sleep in the thing, but Keith couldn’t stop being stubborn. And now Keith isn’t so much of a kid anymore. 

“I made it back,” Shiro realizes and the sheer relief of it saps the strength from his body. Keith catches his shoulder before Shiro can topple off his futon and then kneels down beside it like he’s afraid Shiro might bolt if he doesn’t block the exit.

“Easy,” Keith mutters as Shiro lays back again. “You just got back. Take it slow.”

He’s probably right. Shiro still feels like he’s been put through the ringer. At least his clothes have been changed. The familiar feel of the soft t-shirt and loose pants are heavenly after spending who knows how long wearing nothing but rough alien fabrics. 

“Is this mine?” he asks, absently picking at the bottom hem of his shirt.

“Yeah.” Keith hesitates, then blurts, “Adam was gonna donate it all.”

Oh. Shiro sighs a little and gives Keith a closer look. Maybe Keith’s grown but he’s still the ragged kid Shiro had been looking after for years. He _knows_ Keith and the underlying edge in his voice doesn’t sit right with Shiro at all.

“What happened?” he asks.

Keith sits back on his heels as he draws himself up. The way he’s holding back from just blurting it all out puts Shiro on edge as well. It’s not like him. Just what happened while he was gone?

“They declared you KIA last year,” Keith says and the intense look reminds Shiro a lot more of the thirteen year old kid he’d taken under his wing than the near seventeen year old he’d left behind. “Things didn’t… quite match up, so I couldn’t just let it go. I knew you were still out there. But… Adam gave up after a couple months. He packed your stuff up and was gonna get rid of it-”

Keith jerks like he’s remembered something and then he’s rolling to his feet to go root around in a box under… some kind of conspiracy theory wall? Shiro blinks, following red lines of thread and maps with handwritten notes all over them. Before he can figure out what it all means, Keith’s back and grabbing his left hand.

“I knew you’d need them when you got back,” Keith says as he fits the electro stimulator onto Shiro’s wrist. It’s one of those things Shiro hadn’t thought about while he was just trying to survive. He can’t remember all of where he’d been or what he’d done. It’ll bother him more later, he’s sure, but right now he’s a little too touched by Keith’s forethought. 

“Thanks,” he says, reaching over his other hand for the second cuff- and then he pauses. For some reason, the metal prosthesis doesn’t bother him as much as the fact that he can’t remember where he got it. He knows it has to do with the Galra but the details feel like grains of sand just pouring out of his hands. 

As he looks back to the stimulator wristband, he wonders how far his condition has deteriorated in his absence from earth. It had been holding steady before the Kerberos mission but he’d known it’d be his last one. That’s why he’d fought so hard to be on it.

“Shiro,” Keith says, his voice pitching lower between them, “what happened out there?”

“I wish I could tell you. My head's still pretty scrambled.” It feels like there are rocks rolling around in his head where memories should be. “I was on an... alien ship, but... somehow I escaped. It's all a blur. How did you know to come save me when I crashed?”

Keith mutely looks back to the wall of weirdness that had caught Shiro’s eye before. With his help, Shiro gets to his feet so he can get a better look.

"What have you been working on?" he asks, peering at maps and pictures of strange carvings. 

"I can't explain it, really. After getting booted from the Garrison, I was kinda…” Keith trails off for a moment before he forces himself on, while Shiro takes in the troubling news of Keith’s washing out, “lost. And... felt myself drawn out to this place. It's like something, some energy, was telling me to search."

"For what?"

Keith stares at his theory wall mutely for a few seconds and Shiro gets the sense that he’s asked something stupid but he can’t for the life of him figure why. But, Keith just goes on anyway.

"Well, I didn't really know at the time... until I stumbled across this area,” he says, pointing out one of the photos joined to the map with a string. “It's an outcropping of giant boulders with caves covered in these ancient markings.” 

He starts pointing out other photos, each with carvings of… a lion?

“Each tells a slightly different story about a blue lion, but they all share clues leading to some event, some arrival happening last night.” Keith drops his arm and then looks Shiro straight on. “Then you showed up."

It’s a fantastical sort of story, and also a little worrying if Shiro’s reading the little background details Keith isn’t telling him right, but Shiro has no reason to think Keith’s lying to him. He studies the photos but there’s not much he can glean from them to explain… Well. _Anything_.

“So some kind of prophecy?” Shiro guesses and Keith shrugs one shoulder.

“Not sure, but when I saw the pod come down, I figured it was worth checking out.”

“I’m glad you did.” Reaching out with his flesh and blood hand, Shiro clasps Keith’s shoulder and gives it a squeeze. “Thanks for getting me out.”

Keith glances off like he always does when someone has the audacity to thank him for anything. It’s something Shiro never figured out the cause of, whether something from back when his dad was alive or from the home, but it’s like Keith doesn’t know how to take thanks. 

“Yeah,” Keith mutters finally. “You’re welcome.”

"... I should... probably thank the others, too. They helped, right?” He hadn’t met them before the mission but if they were Keith’s friends, he wasn’t going to insult them. Plus it was just polite. 

Keith pulls a face, folding his arms across his chest as he looks to the door. “I guess so.”

Odd, but Keith had always been taciturn. With a nod, Shiro starts to the door and isn’t surprised when Keith trails watchfully after him. His steps aren’t quite unsteady but he’s still fighting off lingering effects from whatever Iverson’s technician gave him.

Three young, curious faces greet them when Shiro opens the door. The air’s colder out there, definitely winter, and when Keith shoves a thicker, long sleeved shirt into Shiro’s hands he’s grateful to tug it on over the t-shirt. 

“Thank you for helping me,” Shiro says and starts to reach out to shake the first’s hand only to pause and give his new prosthetic a glance. His hesitation is met with the same before the guy takes it anyway in a firm shake. The amount of pressure Shiro feels is surprising, but more than that is a great relief that the thing hadn’t _scared_ him. 

“I’m Lance,” he says. “The nervous guy's Hunk. The short one’s Pidge down there.”

“Ha, ha, jerk,” Pidge grumbles but he has no problem shaking Shiro’s hand either and even the professed ‘nervous’ one does.

“So, did anyone else from your crew make it out?" Hunk asks and Pidge perks up with full attention on Shiro after.

"I'm not sure,” he answers honestly. “I remember the mission and being captured. After that, it's just bits and pieces."

The slump in Pidge’s shoulders is slight but Shiro catches it anyway. He wonders why the kid’s so invested but there will be time to talk about that later, once he figures out what to do about the alien threat he knows is close to the planet. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHY THE WRITERS WOULDN'T INCLUDE A SCENE FOR SHIRO WAKING UP FOR KEITH TO WORRY THE FUCK OVER, I WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND. DO THEY KNOW NOTHING OF VISIBLE RELATIONSHIP BUILD UP? OF COURSE, THEY SCREWED THE POOCH WHEN IT CAME TO THAT ANYWAY. I DON'T KNOW WHY I'D EXPECT BETTER.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PIDGE THINKS A LOT

Katie isn’t surprised to hear no news. The way her luck’s been going, the heat death of the universe will come before she finds her family. She wonders if Matt and Dad are scared and then tries very hard not to think about it.

"Yeah, sorry to interrupt, but back to the alien,” Hunk says with the air of someone who has been trying _really_ hard to be patient but reached their limit. “Where are they now? Are they coming? Are they coming for all of us? Like where are they at this very moment?"

Shiro lifts his hands like he’s trying to make peace. "I can't really put it together. I-I remember the word ‘voltron’. It's some kind of weapon they're looking for, but I don't know why. Whatever it is, I think we need to find it before they do."

“How are we supposed to do that? We don’t even know what the voltron _is_,” Lance says, crossing his arms. “You got any ideas, Pidge? You’ve been watching these things longer than any of us.”

“Actually, Keith started it first. I’m a later addition,” Katie points out because she recognizes that annoyed twitch at Keith’s jaw. The look he shoots her isn’t quite grateful but sometimes it’s kind of hard to get a good read on Keith. To distract the others, she tugs her research tablet out and pulls up her folder of transcriptions she’d been taking for months. “When I first started listening to the aliens, I noticed there was a coded subsignal in a lot of their communication. As far as I can tell, it’s a series of numbers that the aliens keep sending out over and over. I think it’s gotta be a component of some kind of scanning process.”

She can’t be entirely sure she’s reading it right, of course, but… Math is supposed to be the universal language, right?

“Hey, can I see that?” Hunk asks and Pidge hands over the tablet. For several seconds, Hunk squints at the patterns she’d picked up as his lips move over silent words while he figures through it all. She doesn’t know what he’s seeing but she hasn’t been able to match the patterns to anything important. A couple years of winning lottery numbers, they are not. After a bit, Hunk asks, “Do you get wifi on this from the base?”

“Yeah.” The Garrison had ridiculously long range with their wifi. She’s never thought to question it. “Why?”

“I need to look up some element emission spectrum reports.”

Pidge blinks but directs him to her self built browser so he can look. As Lance peers over Hunk’s side, he asks, “What’s going through your head?”

“This looks a lot like a fraunhofer line,” Hunk mutters more to himself than Lance.

"Frown... who?" Keith asks as one brow twitches up.

Pidge catches on immediately and finally a break! “It's a number describing the emission spectrum of an element. If that’s how they’re trying to track the voltron-”

“Only, this element doesn't exist on Earth,” Hunk concludes with a frown as he hands the tablet back. “I think I can build a machine to look for it, kinda like a voltron Geiger counter."

"Hunk, you big, gassy genius!" Lance shoves his shoulder hard but it’s not nearly enough to knock someone as sturdy as Hunk off balance.

"It's pretty fascinating, really,” Hunk says with an excitement Pidge usually only sees in their few shared engineering classes. “Do you have some paper? I could draw the wavelength for you guys."

“That’d be great,” Shiro decides. They all look to Keith, who does not seem to see any value in the request but shuffles around until he finds some paper and a pen with the end chewed down nearly flat. It gets him a sceptical look from Lance which he glares back at, but Pidge has already seen how often he’ll chew the ends of things when he’s concentrating. That she _ever_ finds pens that aren’t pitted at the end is the real miracle. Maybe she should get him some kind of chewing necklace like Ina has for his birthday or something.

As Hunk draws out the odd graph, they crowd in to get a better look. It’s not much and Pidge can’t really justify a use for the visual representation, but Keith grabs it abruptly from Hunk’s hands. He ignores various sounds of dismay as he stalks back to his theory wall and holds the graph up.

It takes Pidge a second to realize what she’s seeing and then she’s shocked by it. The graph perfectly lines up for the landscape of rock formations where the lion cave is. “Okay, that’s. Uh. Weird.”

“If by weird you mean creepier than Mr. Desert Hermit over here who dresses like _that_,” Lance says with absolutely no understanding that the only reason he didn’t get at least a swat is Shiro grabbing onto Keith’s shoulder. Pidge would take offense in Keith’s honor but Lance _is _kind of right. Keith’s got about as much fashion sense as her brother. Which is none.

“What kind of hardware do you need to build this Geiger counter thing?” Shiro asks to bring them back to the present concern like Pidge really should have if she weren’t thinking about Keith’s ridiculous clothes.

“I could probably just dismantle this radio over in the corner and manage it.” The shrug Hunk gives is awkward, especially when Keith glares at him.

“Maybe _don’t_ destroy my stuff,” Keith grits out and Shiro gives his shoulder another squeeze. 

“Okay. So we need something like the radio,” Shiro decides. He starts to reach into his pocket and then pauses, faint dismay crossing his face. Pidge figures he probably just remembered he doesn’t have a wallet anymore. “Do… any of you have something that’ll work?”

While she’s loathe to destroy her precious sensor array, Pidge sacrifices the whole setup to Hunk’s capable hands. That doesn’t mean she’s not over his shoulder the whole time as they bicker over the setup of components and the importance of range over specificity. It’s nice, almost makes her feel normal for a little while. She’s a pretty good engineer but it’s not her passion, not the way Hunk’s filled with contentment when he’s surrounded by parts (or food.)

Hunk’s gadget will do the trick but Pidge is the one that programs a rudimentary operating system for it to show results in an easy enough fashion for even Lance to understand. The whole thing is clunky as can be but it’ll do the job. Probably. This is all supposing that the voltron is even on the planet, much less near the base. 

Except the moment Hunk fires it up (the second time because the first time ended up with a shower of sparks and angry hissing), it catches something and starts a slow, low beeping. 

“Looks like we’ve got a heading,” Shiro says and the proud way he looks at them should not be making her belly all warm and content. She barely knows this guy except for all the stuff she’d weedled out of Keith over the last few months. The one thing she could usually get him to talk at least a little about was his missing friend. Meeting him, maybe she gets it a little.

They head out after a while, only pausing for Keith to hand over a thick vest of some kind to Shiro that is apparently meaningful, given the sharp look Shiro gives him, but neither of them say anything. Pidge’s eyes narrow at the by play. She’d been thinking there was some kind of hero worship thing going on but after seeing them interact in person…

Hm. _Interesting_. Less hero worship, more brotherly? A guy like Keith doesn’t get that way without a _lot_ of isolation but Shiro seems to know him well enough to have picked up on potential stressors so maybe he stepped in later on for an intervention- This touchy-feely stuff isn’t really her thing and it’s probably bad to think of a friend like a machine she needs to diagnose. She pointedly makes herself stop. They have alien technology to find.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO THINKS THE WEIRD KLEPTO/INVASION OF PRIVACY THING WE SEE FROM HUNK IN THE FIRST EPISODE AND THEN NEVER AGAIN IS WEIRD? BECAUSE I THINK IT'S WEIRD AND NOT IN KEEPING WITH HIS CHARACTERIZATION LATER IN THE SEASON, MUCH LESS THE SERIES AS A WHOLE.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HUNK IS TRYING VERY HARD AND EVERYTHING IS TERRIBLE

It’s not that Hunk _wants_ them to fail. He’s just pretty sure it’s going to happen. 

“You sure there’s not some _other_ cave?” he whispers as they all crouch behind a rocky outcropping but as usual no one’s listening. Then again, there are a pack of aliens in Keith’s weird lion cave and that is kind of important. Looks like the bad guys got here first. 

“The Garrison’s in lockdown,” Shiro says, voice tight with tension Hunk feels through his entire body. “There’s no way we’re getting in for any kind of weapons.”

“So we just gotta shake some of the sentries, right?” Lance suggests and Hunk doesn’t miss the surprise in Keith’s backward glance. “Grab their guns, maybe rock some of those helmets, and we’re golden!”

“You guys haven’t even started hand-to-hand training,” Keith says with certainty. “How do you expect to survive that?”

Before Lance can buck up against that, Hunk remembers Pidge’s perfect right hook.

“Pidge might.” Keith blinks at him and Hunk quickly raises his hands in a clear showing of being non-threatening. “Just today, he nearly laid Lance flat with one hit.”

Keith swings his gaze over to their youngest team member and Pidge somehow looks both proud and sheepish. “He snuck up on me.”

“I didn’t teach you any of that to pick fights with idiots,” Keith mutters and suddenly a lot more things make sense about Pidge and the amount of time he’d been missing when they weren’t training. 

“Not sure it’ll be much help here, either,” Pidge says and Hunk’s in agreement. He peeks around the rock to get a look at the two sentries guarding the cave entrance. They’re big, taller than him, and from this distance he can’t quite tell if they’re built like professional wrestlers or just wearing that much bulky armor. Definitely some armor though, unless that segmentation is some kind of bug thing and oh great, now he’s getting _squeamish_. He’s not even sure if they have _faces_ with the helmets none of them have taken off yet. What if they have bulging mandibles just waiting to suck out his life juices?!

“Well, we can’t just sit here forever,” Lance says finally, looking between them all. “Do we run or fight?”

“We can’t run,” Shiro says almost immediately, then presses his lips into a firm line because that kind of decides things, doesn’t it?

“So we fight.” Keith doesn’t quite smile but there’s an excitement in him Hunk doesn’t like one bit.

"Good thing you've got a master of strategy around!" Lance says as he puffs up.

Hunk loves the guy but sometimes even he's willing to admit that Lance has a habit of biting off _way _more than he can chew. With the same showing on Keith's face, he's kind of not surprised that Keith decides to just let it go. He still ends up falling on his back when Keith pushes around him to run headlong for the sentries, a single dagger in his hand out of no where. Shiro curses under his breath.

“Stay hidden,” he orders and then he’s out right after Keith. Not that anyone but Hunk seems willing to listen.

“Am I the only not crazy person?” Hunk hisses to himself and then grabs the backs of both Lance and Pidge’s shirts. “_Don’t even think about it!_”

“Aw, Hunk,” Lance whines.

“You’re not my dad!” Pidge adds but Hunk keeps hold of them as he peeks around to watch Keith and Shiro get themselves killed. His heart is beating so loudly in his ears that he can barely hear his teammates’ continued complaining. In the seconds he’d taken to make sure Lance and Pidge don’t get themselves killed, Keith has already engaged with the aliens and is miraculously not dead yet. It’s kind of terrifying how competent the guy is with that knife of his but at least he’s on _their_ side. Right?

When Shiro gets there, Hunk’s belly drops as he watches one of the sentries swing around to start shooting but then something really weird happens with Shiro’s metal arm. It shifts somehow, there’s an odd light coming off it, and then Shiro’s taking the alien _down_. Two seconds later, Keith’s taken out the other one. They look into the cave and then Shiro waves the rest of them over. Letting go of his teammates, Hunk reluctantly follows them towards the cave. His eyes are fixed on Shiro’s arm, which looks- well. Not _normal_ but at least not _glowing_.

“I could have taken them,” Lance says as he nudges on of the sentries’ still hands with his foot. 

Rolling his eyes, Keith mutters, “In what alternate universe?”

“All of them!” Lance shoots back and Hunk is pretty sure they don’t have the time to deal with those two getting into a fight right now so he ignores them.

“So now that we’ve _officially_ doomed ourselves, what’s the next step?” he asks to hopefully get their attention back on the case at hand. It at least catches Shiro’s notice, if no one else’s.

“We can’t let them get their hands on the voltron,” Shiro decides with a grim tone that reminds Hunk a little bit of action heroes going into what might be their last battle. His stomach clenches. 

Lance takes a break from glaring at Keith to reach down and scoop up one of the alien weapons. It doesn’t take Shiro or Hunk warning him to be careful to keep Lance’s touch on the thing light. The fact that it’s recognizable as a gun doesn’t comfort Hunk but at least they mostly know which side is the boomy end. 

“Weird weight distribution,” Lance says as he rocks it a bit. After a couple seconds, he shifts his grip on the alien rifle with more confidence. “Okay. Let’s do this!”

“Should we really be trusting him with one of those?” Keith mutters under his breath but it’s just snotty enough that Hunk won’t let it stand.

“Lance ranks in the top five percent of cadets in marksmanship and was recommended for sniper training last spring,” he says in what he tries to make a casual off-comment but the way Keith stiffens makes it pretty obvious he doesn’t manage. “He’s probably the _most _ qualified. Other than Shiro, of course. Sir.”

“Not sure my scores were ever that high,” Shiro says with a little shrug.

Lance manages to duck his head before anyone else can see how genuinely pleased it makes him but Hunk’s not sure he’s ever known anyone as well as he does Lance. There’s not much the guy can hide from him. 

Shiro fetches the second alien gun with a turn of his mouth that’s almost disgusted but… he _did_ kind of just come back from being kidnapped and held captive by them. Before the group can get going, a sudden burst of alien words from one of the helmets makes them all jump and Hunk’s not surprised to see both Shiro and Lance train their sights on the sentry. No movement and the words repeat, seeming almost unsure this time. 

“Radio,” Pidge says after moment. 

“If they don’t know their guys are down now, they will in a second.” Shiro takes a breath and then turns to the cave mouth. “Keith, on our six. You three, stay on the lookout for anything. If you see movement, you _drop_. Do not engage unless you have no other choice. Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” they chorus and even Lance stands straight at the authority in Shiro’s voice.

Shiro leads the way as they head inside. It’s the last thing Hunk wants to do but he’s not about to leave Lance behind just because he’s afraid. _Someone’s_ gotta be there to drag Lance back from obvious danger he’s sure to plunge headlong into. It’s just something you sign up for when you’re friends with him. 

At first, it seems like the cave is mostly deserted outside of the sentries. Hunk eyes the weird lion carvings on the walls with unease as their steps echo off the rock walls. He’s never been a huge fan of cramped spaces in the first place but the added level of tension around what might happen next is unbearable. Hands twitching at his sides, Hunk tries to concentrate on just spotting the aliens before they can spot _him_.

That’s probably why he’s the first one to notice them. Hunk grabs Lance and Pidge and hits the ground before he can manage to call the alarm about the two aliens that appear at the end of one passage way. He hears them complaining, hears unfamiliar weapons fire, but what catches his attention most is a strange vibration under him. 

There’s no thought to the way he shoves Pidge off towards one of the walls but before he can get hold of Lance, the ground under him crumbles away. Hunk’s outstretched hand is a second too late. 

Lance is _gone_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CAN WE ALL JUST APPRECIATE THE PERFECT BROMANCE OF LANCE AND HUNK? BECAUSE IT'S A FUCKING BEAUTIFUL SIGHT TO BEHOLD.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> LANCE GETS A BREAK

Lance opens his eyes. He doesn’t quite know where he is and his head hurts so much he almost wants to just go back to sleep again and hope it stops before he wakes up. Curling up on himself, he groans as a sore throb sounds along the arm underneath. It doesn’t feel bad enough to be a break, not like when he was twelve and fell out of a tree because Marco is a _terrible_ sibling sometimes. 

Wherever he is, it’s bright. He manages to pry open his eyes and squints at blue lit rock. Something drops on the ground nearby and he abruptly remembers that he just fell into some kind of pit. Lance rolls onto his back and looks up but light gets dimmer the farther up the pit goes and makes figuring out just how far he fell kind of impossible. Far enough he probably should have broken something. He tests his arm and while tender, definitely just bruised to hell.

“Small mercies,” he mutters to himself as he gets up to his feet. His body complains the whole time. Definitely taking it easy for a couple days, just more excuse to treat himself a bit. Looking up, Lance scans over the room and then goes very still when he figures out just what’s lighting the whole place up. 

“Holy crow,” he whispers. Before him is a huge wall of lit up glass in the shape of hexagons and behind it is _her_. The lion is so large, towering over him with her glowing eyes locked right on him. Something about her feels welcoming, like nothing he’s ever felt before. The gleam off her metal plates should seem cold but he knows, inexplicably, that it’ll be warm when he touches it. _If_ he touches it. No, he knows he will and she’s looking him over just as much as he is her.

Something between them pulls at him and before he knows it, his feet are carrying him towards the strange wall. Like she’s calling him- She is. He can- It’s not quite like he _hears_ her, not really, but there’s something… He knows she wants him with her and more than anything, he wants the same. Like she’s the second part of his soul-

Wait a second.

“Are you _Jedi mind tricking me!?_” he shrieks and there it is again, the voice he can’t actually hear, and now she’s _laughing_ at him. “Oh, you and me are gonna have a talk about _healthy boundaries_.”

But does he really need distance from her?

“Yes! Yes I do! I’m an independent boy- _man!_ Independent man. And I don’t need you going all _mom_ on me!”

Not that she was. What they have is far stronger than familial bonds.

“I don’t care what you think we have! I just _met_ you!”

He hasn’t seen that as an issue before.

“Are you slut shaming me now?” Lance narrows his eyes because he’s pretty sure she is. “Don’t you even start, Miss Kitty.”

Now that’s just unnecessary.

“I can’t believe I’m arguing with a telepathic lion robot.” Reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose, Lance tries to figure out if this is really as ridiculous as he thinks- “Yes! Yes it is! Now stop _whammying me!_”

There’s some notion of being a little miffed but mostly amused. Lance isn’t sure which he dislikes more but at least his thoughts stop going all crossways like someone else is trying to nudge him out of the driver’s seat.

“Okay,” he says, mostly to settle himself than anything else. “So, _without _the whammying, you’re like… You’re the voltron, aren’t you?”

It only makes sense, on account of the carvings and stories and stuff, but the amusement he feels from her suddenly blossoms into something more fond. He’s wrong, that much is clear after a few seconds, but on the right track.

“Can you _lead_ me to the voltron?” he asks and after a moment, the hulking metal beast moves on her own. She lowers her head nearly to the ground, putting her giant glowing eyes nearly on level with him only a few feet away. Her jaws open wide and- Huh. He’s pretty sure that’s an invitation.

“You’re not planning on digesting me for all my sweet thermal power are you?” he asks even as he steps forward. Somehow, he’s not all that surprised when the wall lets him through as he touches it. Everything else has been mostly convenient, why not that? There’s a pathway up the back of her throat- Ugh, no, he needs to stop thinking about this in biological terms because wow is that gross. Still, once he’s inside, it’s hard to think of her as a _machine_. She is but… She seems so alive.

And he was right. Her metal frame _is_ warm to the touch.

What he comes up to is enough like a fighter cockpit that he feels only welcome. He slides into a seat that seems like it was made just for him. Kind of creepy if he thinks about it too long, which he decides not to. As soon as his hands touch the controls, something shifts and he gasps as the vague sense of her suddenly magnifies tenfold around him until it feels almost physical. Somehow, it isn’t stifling but a deep warmth and contentment that nearly brings tears to his eyes. He’s _never_ felt this wanted before.

“I’m gonna lose all my street cred,” he mumbles to her amusement but he can’t really fault her. Giving it up doesn’t cross his mind in the least. 

Lance explores the control board for a minute before some kind of alert pops up on the screen before him. He can’t read the writing but doesn’t need to. She knows what it is and through her he understands as well. Proximity alarm- weapons fire- _enemy_-

“Aw man, I forgot about the aliens!” 

Lance doesn’t consciously decide to get her to rise before his lion’s on her feet. She feels more like an extension of his own body than a machine he’s piloting. They step forward and the wall shatters to nothing. Up above, the darkness of the rock is nothing to her sensors and he sees the hole he fell through. They think nothing of going back up the same way. The tunnel is empty when she breaks up into it, forcing the hole to widen for her much larger bulk. She barely fits in the tunnel but neither of them are worried about it.

She’s picking up heat signatures, vague enough he can’t tell if they’re friend or foe, but it’s something. He heads after them with only half an idea of what he’s doing, even if the controls feel perfect in his hands, but she knows and turns out that’s the important thing.

“When this is over, you’ve got some explaining to do, Lucy,” he mutters to her and feels a flash of warmth roll through him. They move towards the heat signatures, making way faster coverage than he took into account and within seconds they’re breaking through to another cavern-

_Hunk! _

Ahead of them, Hunk’s on his knees with Pidge crouched nearby, one of the aliens pointing their gun right at his head. The alien immediately turns when Lance and his lion [Kool-Aid Man](https://media2.giphy.com/media/pkY4ra5dhljDW/giphy.gif?cid=790b76117242545865ac3b5cad6c5de5c9b35ace473d9eb5&rid=giphy.gif) right into the cavern which is just what Lance needs because like hell is he letting his best buddy get vaporized.

He isn’t sure why he didn’t expect the sudden shower of space lasers from more than just the one guy, but it catches him off guard enough that he yanks control and bangs them into one of the close walls. The impact jars him but not nearly as much as it should. He’ll ask Hunk about it later, when he’s not kicking royal alien _ass!_

Without the gun on him, Hunk’s able to roll out of the way with Pidge and Lance is vaguely aware of Keith and Shiro taking down a couple other guys, but Lance’s eyes stay locked on the alien that had been threatening his friend. He reaches out without any notion that he _couldn’t_ reach and swipes the alien clear across the cavern with one huge paw. The way it crumples to the ground with a very evident finality both disgusts and elates him, and he’s not sure which one actually came from him and what was her influence.

He takes out another one and continues to try not to think about it. Within what feels like only seconds, the aliens are down for the count and the guys stand in a vague line to gaze up at Lance’s new friend.

“Hey guys,” he can’t help saying and grins at the way they jump. He lowers her head down so he can climb out and stand proud in front of her. “She followed me home. Can I keep her?”

Lance huffs out a breath as a much bigger body slams into him and Hunk squeezes the air from his lungs. It’s pretty much what Lance expected and he’s kind of happy to be right. Hunk’s always been a huggy guy, wouldn’t have been right if he didn’t express his relief this way.

“Is that… Should you…” Hunk blinks owlishly up at the lion over Lance’s shoulder. “Should we be worried about alien radiation?”

“I doubt there’s much brain matter left to fry,” Keith says but even he looks impressed, as he very well should!

“The voltron?” Shiro wonders aloud as he folds his arms across his chest, contemplative more than anything else.

“Nah, but she can take us to it.” Lance bats Hunk’s hands away and goes back over to pet his hands across her muzzle. 

“How do you even know that?” Keith asks and then scowls as Pidge pushes around him to get a closer look at the beast.

“What’s she even _made_ of?” Pidge peers at one of the joints of her paw, fingers twitching like he’s itching to touch. “The way she was moving- can you even imagine just the _weight distribution _mechanics behind that kind of control?!”

Hunk starts looking thoughtful as the two glance to one another and then give Lance’s lion a more considering look over. That is, uh, possibly worrying. If they get it in their heads to try to take her apart, Lance isn’t sure what he’ll do.

He’ll protect her.

“Yeah, guess I will,” he says to himself and then straightens up to address them directly. “Okay guys, time to let my lion swallow you whole.”

The looks he gets are priceless but Lance marches back to her undeterred and she opens her mouth wide so he can climb inside. It doesn’t take long for curiosity to draw the rest of them in after him. And why should it? His lion is the _best_.

She thinks he’s the best pilot, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WHAT CAN I SAY? SPECIES/TIME/LANGUAGE TRANSCENDING SOUL BONDS ARE THE WAY TO GO.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> KEITH HATES EVERYTHING.

“This is what they’re looking for,” Shiro says as they start to cram into the only space there is, the cockpit. Right behind him, Keith gets barely a glance before Lance is pushing past him.

“Make way, chosen pilot coming through,” Lance brags and Keith wants to wipe the grin off his stupid face.

“How do you even know how to work this?” he grumbles and Lance shoots him a look over his shoulder that makes Keith want to punch him again.

“She told me.” The sharp jerk of Shiro’s head to regard Lance catches Keith’s attention immediately. That’s the something-about-this-is-fishy-but-I-need-confirmation look. It puts Keith more on guard within a second. 

“She?” Pidge asks, cramming in and pushing Keith right up into Shiro’s space.

“Blue.” 

They all pause and give Lance the same exact look. Hunk’s the one that asks, “Who’s Blue?”

“My lion.”

“_Your_ lion?” Keith says and Lance just grins. 

“_My_ lion,” Lance confirms smugly and then they all have to grab on for dear life as Lance sends the lion running through the cavern tunnel, knocking rock from the ceiling and sides as he goes. It jars them into one another and the hard walls of the cockpit.

“Can’t you run in a straight line?!”

“_Keith_.” It’s maybe kind of pathetic how quickly Shiro’s command voice reels him in even after their time apart but Keith’s still so used to it that it’s just a given. If Shiro said to jump, Keith wouldn’t ask how high because he knows Shiro would trust him to do it the best way. 

Mostly.

"Okay guys, I-I feel the need to point out, just so that we're all, y'know, aware,” Hunk says tensely, “We are in some kind of futuristic alien cat head right now."

“That does seem to be the case,” Pidge says but he’s obviously way more interested in the controls under Lance’s hands and wouldn’t Keith like to get there himself, if only to make the ride _smoother_.

“Am I the only one who thinks this is entirely too weird?!” 

“No,” Keith grumbles and then his attention sharpens when they barrel into open air and aren’t bashing into rock walls anymore. Makes it easier to notice that Lance has gone quiet, head tilted like he’s listening to something. “Hey, what-”

“Right,” Lance says in a distracted tone. “Okay, got it. Now let’s try this.”

“Try what?” Shiro asks but gets cut off as the giant robot lion rears up and roars. The sound is deafening, only made worse by the way Pidge and Hunk scream in the most unhelpful way possible. Keith gets knocked back against Hunk’s larger body as the lion tips back- And then the ground is a _lot_ farther away than it should be. Keith grabs onto the closest thing he can to wedge himself tighter against Hunk, who keeps screaming in his ear as gravity inverts around them-

Lance is doing fucking _summersaults_. They twist in the air, the robot following Lance’s stupid whims and sending them hurtling through an array of acrobatics that Keith might have been impressed with if he weren’t stuck behind-

“THE WORST. PILOT. EVER,” he snarls through gritted teeth but Lance just laughs. The trip is smoother than it could or even should be and Keith files that away to think about later, when he isn’t going to get killed by some idiot who has no idea what he’s doing. _Cargo pilots weren’t fighter class for a reason!_

They land but Lance decides it’s apparently time to run around like a lunatic in the desert. The others are left being knocked into each other as Keith starts figuring out just how he’s going to _break_ this idiot once he’s still again.

"Isn't this awesome?!" Lance crows because he can’t read the room.

Hunk is more than happy to voice his disagreement. "Make it stop! Make it stop!"

But Lance just laughs harder. He sounds _insane_. Keith manages to catch Shiro’s eye but Shiro’s already reaching forward to grab the back of Lance’s chair. 

“How about-” he starts and then they’re all slammed back again as Lance decides to fly. How the stupid robot is managing all this, he’ll consider later. Right now, Keith would rather just figure out the best way to make Lance pay for all this later.

"Where are you going?!" he yells over Hunk and Pidge’s renewed screaming. How they’ve got the air for it with the gs they’re pulling, he doesn’t know. And now that he thinks about it, this isn’t _nearly_ the pressure he’d expect for how fast they’re going or the rapid twists Lance keeps putting them through. Keith had a lot more force against his body during training at the garrison. It’s easier to think about that than the amount of sheer _noise_ and _motion_ threatening to overwhelm him.

“She says there’s an alien ship approaching Earth,” Lance says, like that’s a normal thing any person should just say. “I think we’re supposed to stop it.” 

She being the stupid robot lion Keith wants to dismantle piece by stupid piece. He hates this so much, being out of control and at the mercy of _goddamn Lance McClain_.

"What did she say, exactly?!" Pidge asks because apparently he’s done screaming for right now and even Hunk is just whimpering.

"Well, it's not like she’s saying words, more like feeding ideas into my brain. Kind of. Sounds kind of like my thoughts, actually.” Great, that’s promising. She must be as stupid as Lance. “She’s kind of like a jedi-”

“Does this thing have any firepower?” Shiro asks in a tight voice as he braces himself using Lance’s chair and _finally_, someone’s concentrating on the important part!

“Yeah, pretty sure.”

“Pretty sure?!” Keith’s done. He’s so fucking done.

"Well, if this thing is the weapon they're coming for, why don't we just, like—I don't know, give it to them?” Hunk suggests, proving that his spine is turning into jello. “Maybe they'll leave us alone. Sorry, Lion, nothing personal."

"You don't understand,” Shiro counters immediately. “These monsters spread like a plague throughout the galaxy, destroying everything in their path. There's no bargaining with them. They won't stop until everything is dead."

"... Oh. Never mind then."

Keith is this close to murdering the lot of them. He barely has time to consider it when they’re suddenly hurtling upward and the pale blue of the sky starts giving way to black. There’s a single second to wonder about whether this thing is even air tight and about the continued lack of proper g-force he keeps expecting to feel when a huge shape becomes obvious in the darkness. 

It’s bigger than the Garrison base, blocking out stars in the vast blackness of space and more sunlight than Keith can ever be comfortable with. Definitely metal with the way light peeks around the edges and gives some definition to the shape. The strange bulbous design Keith can’t think would lend itself well to travel in atmosphere but the sharp protrusions along the main body go right to his fight reflex. Weapons, engines, whatever they are, this thing seems tailor made to menace. 

"Uh... Holy crow! Is that really an alien ship?!" Hunk whines and _no shit!_

"They found me..." The haunted sound catches Keith immediately, straight through his growing rage, and his whole body tightens up with the need to _fix it_. These were the things that took Shiro? Hurt him? Cut off his arm? The control Keith’s only tenuously keeping threatens to break entirely because Shiro should _never_ sound that way.

“I won’t let them take-” he starts but then they’re jerking as a bright burst of light shoots past the lion. Pidge slams into his side, knocking the wind out of him and then they’re careening through space, dodging around what seem to be _lasers_. It’s all Keith can do not to drag Lance away from the controls. 

Suddenly Lance straightens up and pipes out brightly, "Ah! All right! OK, I think I know what to do!"

WHICH MEANS HE DIDN’T BEFORE?!

"Be careful, man! This isn't a simulator!" Pidge warns, just proving his point.

"Well, that's good. I always wreck the simulator." Oh, that’s comforting!

Before Keith can lay into him for being stupid and try to get control of the lion from him, Lance maneuvers the lion around to face the gigantic ship. An alert pops up on the side of the cockpit but it’s in a script Keith can’t read and Lance doesn’t even bother looking. The lion’s head shifts and Keith realizes the mouth has opened a split second before a huge laser shoots out and burns a wide line of damage across the side of the ship. There’s no recoil from the blast and with a whoop, Lance is swooping in for another shot. Between the lasers and the lion’s thick claws tearing through long swaths of hull plating free, it’s looking like they’ve got a good chance of taking this thing down.

Then a compartment opens up and a small fleet of smaller ships pour out of it. 

“Well that changes things,” Lance mutters as he twists past a pair of them. The smaller ships are sleek and fast and Keith’s immediately itching to get in one. Later though, when they aren’t in the hands of the worst pilot ever.

“The big ship’s turning!” Pidge says as the little fighters start pushing them closer to the thing.

“We can’t let them get their hands on anything that might lead to the voltron,” Shiro says with a finality in his voice Keith doesn’t much care for. “If they catch the lion, that could be game over for the entire universe.”

Lance picks up on what Shiro means faster than he’d expect. “I think it's time to get these guys away from our planet.”

Zipping through the fighters, Lance at least keeps from crashing into anything while trying to evade their attempts to corral him, Keith will give him that. Doesn’t make it any easier not to jerk the controls out of his hands though.

“Why aren’t they shooting at us?” Pidge asks with urgency. “Around, yeah, but nothing close to actually hitting.”

“They're just chasing,” which doesn’t bode well for them but Keith adds, “so, at least they don’t want the planet, I guess.”

"OK, seriously, now we think having aliens follow us is good?” Hunk whines because he has nothing better to do apparently. “I am not on board with this new direction, guys."

They all ignore him.

"Where are we?" Because Keith’s been studying star charts but everything’s different when you’re in the middle of them instead of staring up planetside.

"Edge of the solar system,” Shiro says and then points out to a larger planetoid way too close for comfort. “There's Kerberos."

_What_. 

"It takes months for our ships to get out this far. We got out here in five seconds.” Pidge’s voice is fainter, shocked more than contemplative. Keith’s less concerned with the time and more with the blankness in Shiro’s tone. When this quiets down, Keith’s going to… Well. He’s not good at the talking thing but Shiro is and maybe if Keith gives him the chance to let loose, he’ll just figure it out? 

“Just how far are we-” Hunk starts and then a flash of light blinds all of them. Keith jerks forward as the lion suddenly sheds a massive amount of speed all at once, slamming into the back of Lance’s chair, then snaps his head up to look. 

What he sees looks like a controlled explosion. Light streams out from a huge round hole in space, phasing out to black not far from the edge of it. Flashes of lightning burst within what look like muddy clouds of gas in the center. It hurts to look at, bright as the light is in the relative blackness, but Keith just grits his teeth and bears it. Glowing lines form an almost mechanical looking ring around the hole that seems like the same design as the edging of Lance’s screens. 

"What is that?!" Hunk asks from over Keith’s shoulder in a tiny voice. Static builds against his skin as they drift closer to it, making the hair on his arms stand.

“Not a black hole,” Pidge decides as he leans between Keith and Shiro to get a better look. “We’d have already been grabbed up and torn apart by the event horizon by now.”

Not a comforting thought, thanks Pidge. Best timing.

"Uh, this may seem crazy,” Lance says slowly, “but I think Blue wants us to go through there."

“Through- like a _wormhole?_” What little color remained in Hunk’s face from all this drains entirely. “That’s just- We don’t know-”

"Where does it go?" Pidge asks to head him off before Hunk can work himself into some kind of mental shut down.

"I-I don't know,” Lance says as he turns around to regard the closest thing to a leader they have right now. “Shiro, you're the senior officer here. What should we do?"

Shiro takes a breath, steeling himself before answering. "Whatever's happening, the lion knows more than we do. I say we trust it, but we're a team now. We should decide together."

They all share looks but it’s pretty obvious what they have to do. Letting the aliens catch the lion isn’t an option.

"... All right,” Lance says at last, gripping his controls tight and turning back to his screens. “Guess we're all ditching class tomorrow."

And then they’re going through into the unknown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AND WITH THAT, I FINALLY FINISHED EPISODE ONE. NOW TO GET OUT OF THE REHASHING AND REALLY START REWRITING THIS PROMISING TRASHFIRE. TIME FOR SOME FUCKING SHENANIGANS!


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WELL, THEY SURVIVED THE WORMHOLE.

Shiro abruptly opens his eyes and realizes he’s wedged between the pilot’s chair and Hunk. Everything is still. No one else is conscious. His next breath is visible and he tastes frost on his tongue. As Shiro tugs himself free, Hunk slumps down against Keith. There’s frost on his eyelashes.

“Keith?” he calls but there’s no answer. Swallowing back dread, Shiro reaches over to check for a pulse and relief shudders over him to find a strong one. He checks Hunk next, then Pidge and Lance. They’re all alive, strong heart beats and steady breathing. A little of his unease fades.

The screens are still casting blue light over them, distorting everyone’s color, but he can feel the air starting to warm up again. How long he was unconscious, he doesn’t know, but when he focuses on the view in front of him, that officially becomes the farthest thing from his mind.

When Shiro was a child, he spent most of his formative years staring at the stars. He and his mother would lay down on the roof as she told him stories about the constellations through the year, how they changed, how to always find his way. Even after she was gone and he’d thrown everything into the Garrison, those stars were still etched into his memory.

There is _nothing_ familiar about this. Before him is an alien star field and he has _no_ idea how to get home. There’s no chance they’re anywhere near Earth, not when he’d been able to read the night sky all the way on Kerberos. What had they been thinking, going through some random-

But he knew what he’d been thinking. There’d really been no other choice. 

Shiro carefully forces his breathing to settle. Okay. Time to take stock of the situation. He’s in potentially enemy space with Keith and three half trained cadets in an alien lion robot of unknown capabilities. There… really isn’t anything in his training that prepared him for that. He closes his eyes a moment, takes another slow, deep breath, and then reaches over to shake the pilot awake. 

“Lance?” There’s no response so Shiro shakes him again. “Hey, come on, Lance. You need to wake up.”

He gets a groan from that but it’s another minute or so before Lance’s eyes flutter open. Still looks a little out of it but progress is progress. Shiro latches onto it immediately.

“Wha…?”

“Stick with me, Lance,” Shiro says and Lance finally focuses on his face. “Hearing anything from the lion?”

Lance straightens up in his chair and squints at the screens before them. “No. No, she’s quiet right now.”

Great. Their single lifeline in the universe and she’s apparently getting cold feet. Paws?

A mutter from beside him signals Hunk coming to. He doesn’t try to get up, just blinks in a dazed fashion. As well as Shiro can tell in the weird light of the cockpit, he’s a little pale but otherwise seems all right. 

“I guess we’re on the other side?” Lance says mostly to himself as Shiro bends down to check Keith and Pidge. Keith rouses as soon as Shiro touches him this time, staring at him like he doesn’t quite believe Shiro’s actually _there_, but that settles within another second. Keith nods to him and turns to glare at the back of Lance’s head. And… that is going to be a problem but Shiro will handle it later. When they aren’t stuck in open space in an _alien lion robot_.

Pidge doesn’t respond but he’s breathing well and his pulse is strong. Whatever forces were exerted on them through the wormhole must have done a number on him. Even Shiro feels utterly strung out after. Lower body mass probably made it worse?

“So what’s the plan?” Keith asks and Lance jumps in his chair, craning his head around to notice the others awake. 

“Uh. Why are you looking at me?”

“I don’t know, maybe because you’re_ piloting the robot._”

Oh, this is _definitely _going to be a problem. There is a real, tense anger in Keith’s tone, not just annoyance. Later. One thing at a time.

Shiro hauls Pidge off the floor to keep him from getting trampled and hands him off to Hunk, who still seems dazed. “Did the lion tell you anything before we went through?” 

“No, she just-” Lance stops, his gaze going inward, and then turns to the controls. “Hang on.”

Alien text scrolls over the screens and so much of it nudges something in the back of Shiro’s mind, something terribly familiar that he doesn’t _want_ to know but can’t deny. Not when it might help them on this mission they’d undertaken. 

The image of a planet pops up in the central screen with more text. It looks like Earth but the landmasses are all wrong and that sends an uncomfortable chill down Shiro’s spine. Lance seems more cheerful, though.

“That’s it!” he crows. “That’s where we find the voltron!” 

Shiro leans past his chair to get a better look at the text around it, but… No, not enough of it is familiar but he’s pretty sure it’s just basic information about the planet. 

“Does she know how to get there?” Shiro asks and Lance takes up the controls with more confidence.

“Just leave it to me!”

Shiro decides to ignore the mutter he hears from Keith behind him and just braces himself before Lance gets them moving again. It’s so strange to see the stars shoot by without getting flattened by g forces, knowing the kind of speed that took. The lion isn’t all that large, so what kind of power source must it have to be able to do this? 

“Oh yeah, Blue says she’s sorry,” Lance says after a bit and Shiro feels one of his brows lift. “She didn’t figure we were that much different than the last pilot.”

“Uh, does that mean she thought we’d be, what, more resilient?” Hunk asks uneasily, giving Pidge a worried glance. 

“Yeah, kinda.”

“Which means…”

“Which means these aliens aren’t pushovers,” Keith adds as he pushes himself up now that they’re getting used to the steady speed and Lance _isn’t_ trying to show off. “When we get to the voltron, we’re gonna have to figure out an actual plan other than ‘throw ourselves into a random wormhole and hope for the best’.”

There’s a little groan and Shiro chooses to ignore Lance and Keith beginning to snipe at one another to instead turn towards Hunk. In his arms, Pidge mutters something and his face scrunches up. It’s another few seconds before his eyes open and Shiro’s heart unclenches just a little.

“Hey,” Hunk says, looking just as relieved when Pidge squints at him. “You back with us?”

“Did I pass out?” Pidge scowls and wiggles until Hunk sets him back on his feet. Shiro catches his shoulder to help as Pidge gets used to the space and the slight shaking of the cockpit. “Where are we?”

“On our way to some random alien planet,” Keith says, tilting his body as far from anyone else as he can in the small space.

“We’re heading to the voltron,” Lance says at the same time and then they’re glaring at each other again. Shiro’s starting to get a headache.

“Are those stars- _how fast are we going?_” Pidge asks with sudden excitement, eyes wide behind his glasses. At least one of them is able to see a bright side. 

“...I have no idea.” Lance tilts his head. “Blue told me but it’s in ETA, not distance. It’s really fast though.”

“Obviously!”

“Get off my dick, man. I’m doing my best.”

Hunk blinks, looking a little more thoughtful. “Maybe for a people that’s using regular space travel, distance isn’t as important as the amount of time it’ll take to get there? If their power sources are renewable enough...”

“Oh man, if your power source is close enough to unlimited, are we potentially looking at a _post-scarcity society?!_” Pidge’s sheer excitement was impossible to ignore.

Shiro tunes it out anyway as Hunk and Pidge start going on about not hugely important science things, if only because it keeps them out of his hair for a minute while he figures out what to do now. 

“So how long did she say?” he asks Lance to get them back on track.

“Five dobashes, but don’t ask me what that means,” Lance says with a shrug. “It’s not long though, I don’t think.”

“Good because I am already _done_ being stuck in here with you,” Keith mutters and Shiro just sighs and pinches the ridge of his nose between his eyes because that is _not_ helpful.

“Do you want me to make it worse?” Lance asks as he turns to glare over his shoulder. “‘Cuz I’ve been holding back the mother of all farts since I woke up since I’m such a _nice person_.”

“Please, don’t,” Shiro says because at least one of them has to be the voice of reason and not continually escalate stupidity in an overstuffed tiny space. They just have to last until they get to this planet and then there’ll be in the open and he’ll be able to _breathe_ again-

He freezes as he registers a hand on his arm. 

“Shiro?” Keith’s voice is low, trying not to draw attention. Shiro offers him a terse smile and then forces himself to look back at the view screens. There’s nothing to do for his discomfort right now and it’s silly that he feels it in the first place. Shiro’s been through plenty worse.

Not the time.

“Lance, time?” he asks, more to redirect himself than anyone else.

“One dobash until final approach.” Lance glances his way but then focuses. They watch as a far off pin of light becomes steadily larger until suddenly they’re slowing down right next to the planet. It somehow disturbs him even more to see it like this, watching landmasses and oceans he doesn’t know slowly move across the globe. Even the colors aren’t quite right. 

Abruptly, the lion lurches forward and Shiro has to grab onto the chair to keep from smashing back into Hunk and Pidge. 

“Lance!” Keith snarls but Lance’s hands aren’t even on the controls anymore.

“It’s not me!” he says. “I think she’s going home!”

Oh, that’s great. Now not only are they in an alien robot lion, they aren’t even in control of it anymore. If he thought he had _any_ chance of getting a handle on this situation, it’s gone now. All they can do is hold on and wait as the lion breaches atmosphere. There’s not nearly enough turbulence but plenty to knock them around the cockpit as the screens go white with heat they don’t feel. There’s no sense in thinking about what he can’t do so Shiro calculates in his head how long he’d expect to burn through the upper layer, vaguely how long it should take to get to the ground. He thinks he feels deceleration but isn’t sure until the screens clear and suddenly he’s getting visuals again. 

“What is that?” Pidge asks over his shoulder and Shiro wonders as well. The structure is huge, five pillars of white atop a tall plateau with a half collapsed bridge connecting it to the next. Shiro can’t make out a lot of detail but it has to be man made- alien made, he guesses. Sapient made? Hopefully they get a better look when they land. Supposing they don’t _crash_.

“Everybody hold on,” he says as they finish the approach and then the lion finally, blessedly settles down on solid ground without killing them all. He supposes miracles happen sometimes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SOMEBODY GIVE SHIRO A HUG. OR A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP. OR A FUCKING BREAK. I AM 100% THERE FOR IT BUT AM ABSOLUTELY NOT THE ONE TO PROVIDE.


End file.
